


Our Inherent Flaw

by destinykw



Category: Naruto
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, Angst, Character Death, Character Study, M/M, Snapshots, Terminal Illnesses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-13
Updated: 2017-02-13
Packaged: 2018-09-23 22:24:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9682895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/destinykw/pseuds/destinykw
Summary: Itachi’s first words to Kisame are “You talk a lot.” Kisame learns about Itachi from the one-sided conversations that ensue over the years and comes to terms with the inevitability of feeling human.





	

When Kisame first meets his partner, they meet on cautious terms. They are both members of an international crime organization after all, of which comradery is not of major importance, considering that all of them are exceptionally skilled in the art of warfare and murder. Bonds are not needed in their line of work, if Kakuzu’s long list of ex-partners (that he killed by himself) were any indication.

With this in mind, Kisame introduces himself to Itachi and gets little to no response. The kid’s head might have moved just a little. _So he isn’t a talker._ Kisame then delves into the Uchiha’s reputation, hoping to get a reaction so he can get a read on the Leaf shinobi he has been partnered with. Itachi just turns away and stares at the horizon.

His first words to Kisame are “You talk a lot.” This is before he delves into his own interpretation of Kisame’s reason for joining the Akatsuki. They’re all here for the same reasons, more or less. Just trying to find their place in a world of commissioned violence that makes little sense. If you’re good at something morbid, it doesn’t really seem to matter who you do it for anymore.

Kisame notes that the kid has guts, to boldly say such things about a colleague that he has just met without batting an eye. When he points Samehada toward Itachi as a warning (and also to test him, Kisame later admits), the Uchiha doesn’t flinch. Kisame warns Itachi to be wary of him, and Itachi returns this sentiment, irises red with Sharingan. It’s a somehow dramatic and simultaneously anti-climactic first meeting, that afternoon on the pier.

What sticks with Kisame about that first meeting is the last thing Itachi says before they head off to begin working together. “No matter who you are, you don’t know what kind of person you are until the end.” Ominous sagacious words from one so young.

* * *

For the most part, they’re complete opposites. Kisame specializes in Water Release, Itachi in his clan’s specialty: Fire Release. One could say that their personalities don’t really suit their chakra natures at all.  As a shinobi from the Hidden “Blood” Mist Village, Kisame is eager to fight, whereas Itachi is not.

Itachi’s specialty in genjutsu, especially with his Sharingan, is something Kisame could never imitate in his lifetime. For a kid ten years younger than him, Uchiha Itachi is a young sage capable of mass destruction that makes his moves with care, and Kisame respects this immensely. This is the sole reason that he holds back whenever Itachi says to; the Uchiha never does anything without having a plan laid out in the big picture.

Everyone in Akatsuki has their dark secrets and hidden pasts, but none interest Kisame more than his partner’s. Itachi is a man of few words, so it’s difficult to get any read on him. Kisame only knows what information is on public record, thanks to the Bingo Book. Uchiha Itachi advanced through the ranks prodigiously, made ANBU captain at age thirteen, and annihilated his entire clan, save his brother, in one night. Kisame resorts to learning about Itachi in bits and pieces as they complete missions together.

* * *

At one point, Deidara taunts Kisame for being “whipped” for Itachi because of the way he obeyed the younger man without question. This is promptly met with an unexpected “Sasori was right, you are the type to die young” from Itachi, who hasn’t said anything in the past four hours and doesn’t move a muscle from his meditation position. Expectedly, this sets Deidara off, and Itachi proceeds to ignore whatever expletives the clay-user spouts (“I’M GOING TO KILL YOU ONE DAY, JUST YOU WAIT, UN!”). Kisame smirks behind the high collar of his Akatsuki robe.

* * *

Years pass, and rumor has it that Orochimaru invaded Konoha while posing as the deceased Fourth Kazekage. Itachi volunteers their two man cell to check out the village and the status of the Nine Tails. And so, Kisame finds himself standing with his partner at the top of Konoha’s border, watching the smoke drift from the center of the village.

He can’t help but wonder.

“Feeling any nostalgia for your home village?”

“Not at all.”

Itachi’s usually blank gaze flickers quickly with something Kisame thinks is doubt. Before he can open his mouth to say anything, Itachi starts moving toward the village.

When they stop by a restaurant to grab a quick bite before work begins, Kisame notices again that something is off with Itachi. He has glanced at something behind Kisame several times in the few minutes since they have sat down and ordered.

“What is it?”

Itachi simply looks Kisame in the eye. At this point, Itachi’s soul piercing stares no longer faze Kisame. He’s grown used to interpreting his partner’s eyes when his questions are met with silence.

“Nothing.”

The Uchiha doesn’t look at whatever it is behind Kisame again. Kisame isn’t convinced.

* * *

After their lunch break, the duo encounters two jonin, both of which they handle pretty easily. Despite the woman being a genjutsu user, she can’t keep up with Itachi’s eyes. Kisame is entertained by the man and his chakra blades. A third jonin, with distinctive messy gray hair and mask that covers his mouth and nose, swoops in, and he recognizes Itachi immediately. It seems that Itachi does too, because he immediately tells Kisame to keep his distance.

As usual, Itachi makes a good call, as Kisame becomes perplexed with why this Konoha jonin (Kakashi’s the name, apparently) has one eye with the Sharingan. There’s an uncomfortable familiarity and tension in the air, but it’s short-lived when an obnoxious loudmouth jonin dressed in green butts in to the rescue. Itachi and Kisame retreat.  Konoha and Itachi become a more and more curious mystery to Kisame.

“That Kakashi with the Sharingan…you knew each other.” Kisame states tentatively, testing the waters with this topic as the duo sits in the shadows of the forest.

Itachi says nothing.

* * *

A couple of days later, Kisame finds himself in an inn not too far from the village, with the Nine Tails’ jinchuuriki in sight, and Itachi’s younger brother pretty much raving mad. So this is the brother Itachi left behind.

Kisame doesn’t understand the relationship between Itachi and Sasuke, and he doesn’t think he ever will. What he originally thought was Itachi’s uncharacteristic soft spot for Sasuke didn’t match up with the scene unfolding in front of him.

Sharingan blazing and Chidori chirping ominously, Sasuke’s attack is easily blocked by Itachi. The Chidori slowly (and a bit awkwardly, Kisame thinks) dies out. Itachi mechanically breaks his brother’s arm, and later pins him to the wall.

Kisame’s not surprised by the words spilling out of Sasuke’s mouth; these are expected words coming from the sole survivor of a clan massacre. He’s intrigued by the words that come out of Itachi’s. They’re twisted in a way that Kisame could not have imagined.

“You’re still too weak, foolish little brother. You’re weak because you lack hatred.”

Yet, Itachi’s actions say otherwise. He could have easily killed Sasuke then and there, but he doesn’t.

The Legendary Sannin, Jiraiya, appears and makes their mission difficult (honestly, who summons a toad stomach?), and so they retreat. Sasuke is left in one piece, and the Nine Tails jinchuuriki is still under Jiraiya’s watchful eye. This mission might be a failure in terms of catching the Nine Tails, but at least they got more intel about the state of the village.

For Kisame, this mission let him read a new page in Itachi’s tightly bound book about his life. They’re setting up for the night when Kisame randomly says, “You still love him.”

Itachi resorts to meticulously setting up the campfire with his lips pressed firmly together, silent as always. Kisame notes that his onyx eyes seem to brood for a moment. He mentally changes the status of Itachi’s relationship with his younger brother from “soft spot” to “complicated”.

* * *

Time passes, the Akatsuki capture bijuu, and Kisame continues to question just what Itachi has in mind for his brother. Compared to the other members of the organization, Kisame never pegged Itachi as a sadist. Itachi is a pacifist, whatever violence he initiates is out of necessity. So why does he antagonize his brother so much? _What need is there?_

During this time, Kisame gets a niggling feeling that Itachi is deteriorating. The distances they are able to cover in one day have slowly decreased during the past several months, and Itachi disappears every so often to run his own errands. It takes him longer to recover from using the Mangekyo Sharingan. These changes were negligible at first, but they began to accumulate over time. Kisame doesn’t ask, because he doesn’t want to appear nosy, or God forbid, concerned.

_In this world, it’s every man for himself._

* * *

News spreads that Orochimaru is dead, killed by Sasuke, who had come to train under him just a year or two ago. Kisame swears he sees a glint of pride in Itachi’s eyes as they stand on the fingers of the divine statue.

Deidara and Tobi go after Sasuke after the group finishes sealing the Four Tails. It’s a preventative measure, if they look at the big picture. Itachi is too valuable of an asset to lose, although Deidara’s ego may think otherwise. Zetsu reports that Deidara, Tobi, and Sasuke are nowhere to be found after Deidara’s suicidal explosion.

Itachi walks out and stands in the rain while Kisame watches from his spot in the cave.

“You’ll ruin your health.” Kisame chides. He swears it’s as though Itachi has a death wish. A death wish that he will only let his little brother fulfill. Kisame will never know for sure, but that’s his latest theory as to what’s causing Itachi’s recent miniscule lapses in behavior.

Itachi just looks up at the sky.

If you had asked Kisame years ago, when he first met Itachi, if he would have ever worried for his partner, he would have scoffed and said no. _Shinobi are tools, and tools have no use for feelings._ These days, Kisame isn’t quite so sure anymore. Itachi’s condition has worsened drastically; it’s something that’s become increasingly difficult to hide from the rest of Akatsuki.

Heck, it wasn’t until several months ago that Itachi finally swallowed his pride told Kisame about his condition, even though Kisame had been suspecting it for at least a year prior. Kisame says nothing whenever Itachi drinks some herbal concoction or pops pills into his mouth. He has feigned sleep and turned a blind eye for the past year whenever Itachi started coughing up blood in the middle of the night.

For shinobi, pride is an odd thing, and he lets Itachi cling to what dignity he has left. Kisame’s fairly sure that Itachi doesn’t want anyone’s pity.

“If I didn’t know better, it looks as if you’re crying,” Kisame observes.

The rain continues to fall.

* * *

As Itachi said, Sasuke isn’t dead. He’s very much alive, has assembled his own team, and is on his way to fulfill this twisted plot that Itachi has arranged for ten years.

Kisame returns from a nearby trade town and tosses a bottle of herbal supplements to Itachi, whose eyes snap open from where he is sitting against a tree.

“You look like hell.” This is something Kisame finds himself saying more and more often as of late. Itachi’s already fair complexion has slowly grown unhealthily pallid. His long hair, which used to shine in the light, is now brittle and dry. He spends way too much of the day recovering what little energy he has left. The piercing gaze Itachi once had all the time is something that requires effort.

As usual, Itachi doesn’t respond verbally, only with a directed look that resembles gratitude. These days, a lot of his time is spent resisting the urge to cough his lungs out.

Minutes pass before Itachi is able to break the silence.

“I saw Uzumaki Naruto. The Nine Tails jinchuuriki. Sasuke’s old team mate,” he says softly, as he cradles the bottle that Kisame bought and pretends to read the administration instructions that he has long stopped following. Kisame already knows that Itachi is only alive thanks to drugs and sheer willpower, just like he knows that Itachi can’t read anymore when he sees the world in blurs.

Kisame responds with a noncommittal grunt. Itachi and his clones.

“I thought you were supposed to be conserving your chakra.”

A faint smile graces Itachi’s lips for fractions of a second.

“It was important.”

Itachi succumbs to another coughing fit that seems to last for ages, leaving him gasping for air, hanging onto life. Kisame watches as he promptly shoves a quarter of the bottle of pills down his throat. That bottle is meant to last for a month.

* * *

Their last encounter, a few days later, is tinged with a nostalgia that neither of them would have expected when they first met years ago.

“It’s odd, isn’t it? I’m a pawn in my own plotline that I wrote for myself the day I killed my clan.” Itachi’s voice is barely above a whisper, and Kisame has to strain a little to hear him. “The shinobi walks off to face his death.”

The two of them stare at the horizon from where they sit on the roof, as the sun rises over the small village that the Uchiha hideout resides in. Itachi silently finishes off the bottle of pills that Kisame just bought a few days ago. A weird feeling pools in Kisame’s gut when the reality of Itachi’s suicide mission finally sets in. Today is the day, today is when Itachi’s lifelong plan will come into fruition.

Kisame can’t put a word to this sensation. His relationship with Itachi isn’t something as fickle and simple-sounding as friendship. No, friendship was for relations formed and nurtured from childhood or innocence. Friendship sounds too jovial for a duo that made a living doing unthinkable things.

Brotherhood isn’t the right word either. Familial love runs deep, and although Kisame doesn’t have much experience with it, he sees a lot of it through Itachi’s however demented interactions with his brother. After all these years, Itachi stays alive only to die by his brother’s hand.

Kisame can’t definitively say that he would die for Itachi. Die with him in battle? Probably. But for him? It would probably depend on circumstance.

Ultimately, their companionship is based on trust. Itachi is the one person that he has worked with the longest, in all his years of being a shinobi. Little by little, their teamwork developed and their trust in each other grew. This is why they have the highest success rate within Akatsuki. Despite their obvious differences, they have an inherent compatibility that is otherwise lacking in all the other two man cells.

Kisame’s eyes widen as he realizes the feeling he’s thinking of is “to miss”. His heart sinks as his brain finally puts together that in his own twisted way, he’s going to miss Itachi when he’s dead. At first, Kisame can’t wrap his head around the concept of missing someone, but then he’s hit with the realization that despite his Kiri training, it’s hard to ignore the fact that Itachi is the one person that he has spent an immeasurable amount of time with, both on and off duty.

He’s also probably one of the few people who know anything about this elusive man at all. The rest of the people who knew anything about Itachi are all dead.

Kisame knows that Itachi is still haunted by his past. He sees this in the bags under his eyes, whenever Itachi tosses and turns at night, whenever his usually unperturbable blank expression is tinged with a split second of sadness. As much as the Uchiha will deny it, Kisame knows.

Kisame knows Itachi’s tea house order. Hot green tea, genmaicha if possible, with some sort of wagashi sweet, preferably dango. He knows Itachi is picky about beef (he hates steak). If they’re grabbing something to go, onigiri is what brings a small flicker of happiness to his eyes.

Kisame knows that if Itachi had the choice, he wouldn’t be a ninja. Back when his eyes were still capable, Itachi would spend their down time reading old classical literature. His penmanship is impeccable, and Kisame has no doubt in his mind that Itachi could have made a living as a civilian offering to do calligraphy on the streets. All the things that Itachi chooses to do with his time when he is not training or on a mission all point to a desire for a peaceful existence, a wish that cannot be granted in this lifetime.

Itachi will die, and Kisame will be the only one to come close to remembering him for who he is, not who he pretends to be.

“So this is how we end,” Kisame says wistfully.

Itachi makes an affirmative hum as he stands and turns to face the Uchiha hideout.

“Only Sasuke can pass, is that clear?” If Kisame detects a slight tremble in Itachi’s voice, he says nothing.

“Yeah, yeah.” Kisame stands up too, hefting Samehada to rest on his shoulder. “It was nice knowing you.” The chuckle at the end feels forced.

Itachi thinks a bit before responding. “Live and die on your terms, not theirs.” Kisame nods.

They say these goodbyes standing side by side, facing opposite directions. There’s an unspoken sense of gratitude between the two shinobi. _Thank you for fighting with me. Thank you for looking out for me. Thank you for all these years in this lonely world we live in._

Itachi departs; neither of them turn to watch the other’s figure recede.

* * *

Sasuke’s team arrives shortly after. Itachi’s younger brother has grown up, but Kisame can’t help but notice that his actions and attitude are all clouded but a haze of hate. This is, without a doubt, the product of whatever insanity Itachi has dragged out for all these years. The brothers share the same eyes, but Itachi’s are always calm and calculating, while Sasuke’s are overwhelmed with anger and the façade of intimidation.

Kisame allows Sasuke to pass and eyes the rest of the team that stands before him. He doesn’t expect Mangetsu’s younger brother to be here. He allows Suigetsu to pick a fight with him, because he never needed a distraction more than now. Kisame is not one to wallow in thoughts, and all the hypotheticals that came with “what if Uchiha Itachi were to die” are not things that he wants to spend time on. The two Kiri ninja clash, and a small part of Kisame notes that Itachi isn’t there to chastise his desire to fight.

* * *

When Zetsu announces Itachi’s death, the rest of Taka breathes a sigh of relief. Kisame can’t help but feel that some small part of him died with his partner. _What an idiot._

He hears himself say “If Itachi is dead, then I’m going to go spread my wings for a bit,” as if he didn’t care. He’s not supposed to care. He’s been rid of other partners during his time in the organization, so why is Itachi, a kid ten years his junior, any different?

It’s one of the biggest lies he’s said in his existence.

* * *

_A tool is only as good as its weakest part, and our inherent flaw as shinobi is the fact that we are human and prone to emotion._

**Author's Note:**

> I hashed this out over the course of a weekend (more or less), so there's a lot to work on...especially since I was doing this in avoidance of a midterm. Hopefully this was at least decent?  
> (I've returned to the kisaita angst hole)


End file.
